Could You Earn a Spot on This Luxury Builder’s Team?

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The first thing you need to know about luxury builder Erin Stetzer is that she’s an athlete.

Like, a real one.

Full-ride scholarship to Fairfield for hoops.
Toured on the LPGA.
Completed an Ironman.
While raising five kids.

Talking with her on episode 83 of The Craft of LBM Sales Podcast, it was easy to see how that competitive nature translates to home building.

Intensity.
Focus.
Specificity.

At one point I blurted it out, and Erin agreed:
“Home building is the ultimate team sport.”

She offered three specific ways LBM salespeople can earn a spot on her team.

“There’s a process, and people who understand that process are crazy valuable to us.”

Practice before you play.
I asked Erin about unforced errors, the most common ones she sees LBM reps make.

“It could be a million-dollar window package, and it takes an architect, a designer, and a builder to analyze one quote. Every single time, all three of us catch things. That happens all day long, and it takes us hours to go through that.

“So, if you were a window rep, you should walk in and say, ‘You’re not going to have those problems with me. We’ve done our homework. We’ve filtered through all of it. These plans match all these specs, the first time through.’

“Do you know how many times I’m going to work with that person? One hundred percent of the time.”

I flash back to the mantra of my first VP of Construction at Pulte Homes, Mike Rhoads:

Don’t make the builder your quality-control department.

Do your homework before you show up.

Speed your footwork.
No discussion survives long without a mention of AI. Here’s what Erin said, after noting that no one wants to read an email from a bot pretending to be you:

“Anything we can do to speed things up, we’re going to let AI help us do that. We’re speeding up how we’re tracking modifications, how we’re capturing information and relaying it to our trades. So, for salespeople—do anything you can do to help a builder speed things up.”

Here’s some homework from our OSR Academy, which is onboarding Cohort V now. Click here for more information.

Open whatever AI platform you use and paste in Erin’s quote above. Then ask:

“I sell building materials to builders and contractors. Based on this builder’s advice, where might I be unintentionally slowing my customers down — and what could I do differently?”

See what it says.

I’ll do the same, and next week I’ll share what I learned—along with specific ways LBM salespeople can help customers move faster.

Be a talent scout.
No team wins on discipline and heart alone.

You need talent.

And the kind that shows up every day with discipline and heart is scarce.

That’s why Stetzer leans on her suppliers’ networks to expand her search for great tradespeople.

“If I’m going to build a Japanese contemporary home, my traditional trim carpenter is not a fit. So, I call my rep— who I trust implicitly —and say, ‘I know you’re exposed to a lot of trim carpenters. Could you help me find one or two that would be the best fit for this project?’

“That’s a true story and that’s the value. The salesperson placed the right person in the right project.”

We talk about our industry being a relationship business.
Alright, so how valuable is your network to your customers?

The depth and breadth of that network, online and off, proves you understand the talent around you, especially with our trade base shrinking.

Three last things!

ONE
Don’t surrender to “just gimme a price.”

Erin’s advice for reps who feel pressured to cough up a number before communicating value:

“I’d say, ‘You’re going to get a price. But when you meet with that homeowner, I want you to look like you’ve done your research. I want to arm you with these things. Yes, you’re going to get a price, but here are some things that would be really helpful for you to know.’”

TWO
Custom home building makes up roughly 20 percent of all single-family housing starts.

THREE
Custom home starts are up 3 percent this year.

There’s opportunity out there.
So be an athlete.
Help builders like Erin Stetzer compete and win.

Thanks for reading.
I’ll be back next week.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE EPISODE HERE